At least we didn't sign Danny Welbeck, Daniel Sturridge, Danny Ings, Dean Sturridge, Danny Ings, Harry Arter, Danny Drinkwater or Marcus Rashford. That's a plus.
Would have been a useful squad player as he can play RB, CB and CDM but agree with what you said in that United probably wouldn't be keen on loaning to us as a back up
No, you can't guarantee it, but you can say that in all probability it would at least give us a better chance of alleviating those problems as opposed to persisting with the same personal that are directly and consistently responsible for them.
Agree entirely. Anyone who chooses to criticise the Pozzos after what they've done for us should be forced to spend eternity watching Carl ****inson hoofing it into a wasteland where our demolished stand used to be over and over again. Watford FC in 2018 is unrecognisable from the provincial also rans we used to be for almost all our history - always losing any player who showed the slightest glimmer of ability to 'big' clubs like QPR or Sheffield United for a miserable pittance. If we had had a player even of the quality of Ben Wilmott in our team a few decades ago, we would have been creaming our silk scarves. Now we sign first team players from Barcelona, Chelsea and Spurs. Remember how holding on to Ben Foster after his loan from Man Utd was an impossible dream? We do need to remember our humility.
Rashford would really improve our squad! Others might like Sturridge and Welbeck if they could stay fit for more than 2 weeks .
I forgot he can also do a job at CDM. No idea how good he is there though as it's been a long time since he has been used in that position.
Welbeck would have been a good option as he provides something a bit different to Deeney and Gray. His link-up play is better than both of theirs so he could have interchanged well with our midfield, and he makes good runs. The big negative though is that even Gray would likely be ashamed at his finishing.
They’ve had all summer to add 2 players to 2 positions that would be key to our improvement. They may well recognise that but they’ve had long enough to rectify it. Realistically we needed a recognised First XI centre-back last summer too so they’ve had 2 years on that position and still haven’t identified a solution. Giraldi needs to go.
Wiki has 1 goal for Athletico in 2015, 6 for Valencia in 2016/17 and 2 for Sevilla in 2018. Either way not exactly prolific and less than Deeney or Gray in the last two seasons
Apart from anything else, we've obviously sold Richy for a healthy profit, and yes, we brought Ken Sema, a player who turns 25 next month, from the Swedish league, but we've also let Carrillo go back (understandably, he was always frustrating in terms of end product, but he generally contributed to overall play and had a period of about a month where he was our best player) so we are in fact in a net negative in terms of attackers. Pereyra is extremely injury prone, and Gerard appears to be the same; his record is, as it stands, 7 appearances in half a season, after all. As others have already asked, what happens if we suffer any further injuries to our spectacular midfield? Are we seriously relying on wheeling Success out (if he doesn't go to Villa)? Is it really acceptable to have the quality of our attack drop that significantly just because we didn't feel like bringing anyone else in? That is, of course, not even mentioning the ridiculousness of no recruiting at centre back or centre forward, the two areas that I don't think a Watford fan alive would deny are required areas of reinforcement.
And for how many more years should we continue to use what is now an irrelevant past (when considering the present) as the measuring stick, whilst being ignorant to the reality of the current day goings on? 5, 10, 20, 50 years? It's great how much better off we are now than at other points in our history and everyone is grateful for that, but it is a weird, prehistoric and flawed mindset to take that no matter what happens now it doesn't really matter all that much because "we were X amount worse off X years ago" and "look at X club now and how much we are punching above our weight". I prefer to live in the present and measure successes and failures in line with that.
Look on the bright side lads, there's plenty money left to spare in January when we'll need new players
Seems like all of you worried about making crap deadline day signings can rest easy. None of them so far!
Me too mate, and I started going in 1970. I know full well where we have come from, which is why I don't want us to go back there. Which I think we are risking.
Agreed. In 1880, we didn't even have a club to pointlessly chase Spanish Internationals, let alone play football.
Why did we leave it so late? We’re desperately scrapping for crap players on the final day. Players - better than Livermore - have been brought in on loan by our rival clubs. Why are we wasting our time when we clearly want to fill certain positions? Do we not have enough HG players? That’s the only possible excuse I can think of, for trying to bring in players which are significantly worse quality than our rivals. It’s embarrassing to see everyone, including crap players, reject us.
Wiki's a terrible shout for goalstats, often miss them one way or another. Transfermarkt has 15 in all competitions over the last two seasons. Also, if he can control a ball and run, he's an upgrade/ different threat to the Groy twins regardless of goalscoring, to be fair.
Pereyra will leave for Torino before the European window closes anyway. We haven't bought a replacement but that won't stop us cashing in on an offer that is "too good to refuse".
Exactly. Having identified issues with the squad and with the transfer window closing, why are we only attempting to loan players and making low ball offers?
You support a crap football team mate. Get used to it. We've had a couple of years of above average performances, now it's time to get back to normal. The continued choice of coach says it all.
I think we need to see how the first 10 games go to see if we needed anyone new. Past failings (lack of goals, defending set pieces) have hopefully been addressed and the balance, formation and tactics Gracia employs may perfectly suit what we now have. Obviously names and offers were being banded around but only 1 or 2 were ever reported by bigger news agencies so maybe the majority weren't even true. I'm happy to start the season on a positive and see how we play under the new guy. Really looking forward to the new season back at the vic. Will be a very different one for me personally so will be interesting and fun!!! COYH Edit: and finally we get to see if this Peneranda is any bloody good!!!
Thoroughly underwhelmed. What a load of ****. To not strengthen two obvious weak areas, at all in this window, is poor. Anybody who says otherwise is deluded.
Window closed. Deals can still be announced but I'd be surprised if we did anything. Awful end to the window for us.
Oh well at least today has been good news for those who rate Gracia more highly than some of us do. You now have a ready made excuse every time we lose a match or fail to score. I’m sure the phrase ‘but he’s been dealt a bad hand’ will occur regularly over the coming weeks.
Another season of Deeney, Gray and Okaka (seriously, how is this man still at a Premier League club and considered an option?) at one end and quite likely plenty of Britos, Mariappa and Prodl at the other. Laughable.
Yes, sorry, are you saying they aren't? Pereyra had two consecutive seasons in which he only made 13 league appearances thanks to injury. That seems fairly prone to injury to me.
